Running the Utah Belt Line

[dgionet]

Love working with turntables with UP903999 45-Tonner ( at Junipero )....

Junipero engine servicing.jpg
For those who have never seen UP903999 in real here it is.
UP903999.jpg
Denis

[dcarleton]

Love working with turntables with UP903999 45-Tonner ( at Junipero )....

Denis

I see you have your copy of the UB set up as a Union Pacific line. If you don't mind our inquiry, is that just because you needed a great route to place your Union Pacific roster on?
Or do you have a backstory for how the Union Pacific came into possession of a line from Provo to Albuquerque?

[dgionet]

I enjoy running the Union Pacific roster, especially the 60 to 80's pre-dash 9 era. Also to notice the scenery has some resemblance with some of the areas operated along the UP network: desert, dense forest areas, steep grades etc....

Denis

[dcarleton]

Oh, okay. So, here's a backstory that makes the UB into a key mainline for the Union Pacific. Ready?

A long time ago, beginning in 1880, there was the Texas, Santa Fe and Northern Railroad, and they were raising money to build a railroad between Provo and El Paso via Santa Fe. This is the actual map that their agents were showing to investors in London:

https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll4/id/1671/

They built the line from Santa Fe up to Española that the Rio Grande operated over to get into Santa Fe, and then started grading to the north-northwest on a grade that's still traceable in places despite the passage of time.

But look at the route in the track viewer and it says "to Albuquerque" on the South, and "to Provo" on the North. That piece of railroad likely would have been of interest to Harriman because it throws a lasso around the Rio Grande, and dives into the territory of the Santa Fe Railway. As we can see in the model the route has good on-line business, but for through traffic to the east the Union Pacific would not want to rely in the Santa Fe Railway. For through traffic they could build a branch coming off south of the modeled portion in Santa Fe and heading southeast in the general direction of Tucumcari, and friendlier connections. Of course the Union Pacific would be short-hauling themself, and perhaps only a viable routing for traffic to Texas and the Gulf Coast.

That all changed beginning in 1980. The Rock Island went to liquidation, and the Union Pacific bought the Western Pacific and the Missouri Pacific. The UB plus the former Rock Island "Choctaw Line" could connect the two ends creating a seamless corridor for the Union Pacific.

So there's the backstory, mostly historical facts plus just enough fiction to make it fun.

[dgionet]

Interesting.
Thanks for sharing
Denis

[uli2]

I was trying to run the "Westbound Stack Train" activity but the train stalls at the 2% grade before Descanso. I am running OR MG Rev. 165. Any ideas?

[uli2]

I was trying to run the "Westbound Stack Train" activity but the train stalls at the 2% grade before Descanso. I am running OR MG Rev. 165. Any ideas?

I found out that the problem was the Open Rails version I was running. I tried the same spot with the same consist in OR 1.6 stable and had no problem getting up the grade. In OR MG 165 the train definitely seemed to be underpowered.

[niknak]

Hi Uli, I'm running ORNYMG173 and had the same problem, stalling just where the rock retaining fence begins. I think it was a combination of 25mph limit at the beginning of the 2% gradient and multiple curves. I switched to autopilot for less than a minute to escape and then the gradient eased to 1.5%.

[Darkhorse427]

Just an FYI the route and activities were tested in the Stable release of OR v1.61 from the open rails website. I did not and am not going to ensure compatibility with offshoot versions of open rails. Issues that arise while running OpenRails v1.61 stable or later stable releases will be addressed when the can.

[niknak]

Understood Russ. It's a really impressive route and I thank you for making it available to us all on this site.

[slipperman]

Hi Nick & Uli,
Using ORNYMG 172.1, I had no trouble getting up any of the 2.0% gradients - my minimum speed was about 23.5mph.
The only problem I had was that the activity didn't give an "end" message - I finally stopped at about 17:10.

My congratulations to the route's author - it obviously involved a phenomenal amount of work!
One little niggle - the numbers shown on the extreme left of the Track Monitor don't appear to be mileposts!

Cheers,
Ged

[niknak]

Hi Ged and Uli, Yes it certainly seems to be something with the ORMG version that's causing the problem. I haven't got v172.1 Ged but I tried with 172.2 and stalled out at the same place as I did with v173.
I then tried stable 1.6.1 and got up the 2% gradient at around 24-25mph.
I'll post a note for Carlo over on Elvas Tower in case he hasn't seen this and wants to look into it.

[niknak]

Hi Nick & Uli,
Using ORNYMG 172.1, I had no trouble getting up any of the 2.0% gradients - my minimum speed was about 23.5mph.
The only problem I had was that the activity didn't give an "end" message - I finally stopped at about 17:10.

My congratulations to the route's author - it obviously involved a phenomenal amount of work!
One little niggle - the numbers shown on the extreme left of the Track Monitor don't appear to be mileposts!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,
I've just completed that activity using 1.6.1 although I was 6 minutes later than you .

I DID get the 'Finished Activity' message after pulling almost right up the switch ahead at Iron Mountain.

I('m confused about your comment regarding mileposts - As far as I can see the numbers on the Track Monitor match up with the physical mileposts in the game. Am I missing something?

[slipperman]

Hi Nick,
This is a repeat of my reply on Elvastower :

I have now run up the mp 280 gradient and did NOT need to use "Initialise Brakes"! My minimum speed this time was 16.5mph. I had the throttle at 100%. At mp 282, on a 1.0% grade my speed was 22.9mph, and at mp 283, had to throttle back to avoid exceeding the speed limit!

Don't know if it makes any difference, but I'm running Windows 10.

Regarding my mileposts comment - it's my turn to be confused because, when running ORNYMG 173, the mileposts appeared to be correctly shown in the Track Monitor!

Cheers,
Ged

[alifatico]

Hello everyone.
I’ve installed the route and the rolling stock and tested an activity without any issues.
However, for some reason (I must have done something wrong), I can't see the roads—only the blue lines.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
Best regards,
Pedro.